Meals for the VNFC Shelter

The Fairfield Gonzales Reconciliation Circle has committed to preparing 6 dinners and 2 breakfasts for the 25 residents of the Victoria Native Friendship Centre (VNFC) Shelter during the period of November 1, 2019 to March 31, 2020. Here are the dates and meal commitments:

• Sunday, November 24, 2019 - dinner
• Sunday, December 22 and Monday, December 23, 2019 - breakfast and dinner both days
• Sunday - January 26, 2020 - dinner
• Sunday - February 23, 2020 - dinner
• Sunday - March 22, 2020 - dinner

Clicking on the links on the dates above will take you to the menu for that day.

How You Can Help

We will be preparing the meals in the community kitchen of the Fairfield Gonzales Community Association (FGCA). Cooking sessions will run from 3:00-6:00 pm - at the end of the session a volunteer (maybe you!?) will drive the prepared meals to the VNFC (231 Regina Avenue) for 7:00 pm meal time. You can help by:

• participating in the cooking sessions prior to the meal
• donating items from the list of ingredients/supplies
• donating prepared food (i.e. desserts, sides)
• donating fruit or other items (i.e. granola bars, pudding cups) that residents can have as snacks and/or take with them when they leave the shelter in the morning (the shelter runs from 7 pm to 7 am - outside of that time residents must be out of the shelter)
• donating staples to have on hand for cooking (i.e. salt, pepper, oil, tin foil, eggs, disposable pans)
• donating money to be used to purchase supplies

General Thoughts on the Meals 

We want the meals we serve to the residents of the shelter to be delicious, satisfying, nutritious and (relatively) healthy. We want to offer something that everyone can eat - this may mean providing gluten free and vegan as well as vegetarian and non-vegetarian options (as I am writing this on October 29, 2019 we still don't know of any particular dietary needs of the shelter residents as they have not yet arrived). In terms of quantity this is what I propose for most meals:

• 2 giant lasagna pans of the vegetarian option
• 1 giant lasagna pan of the non-vegetarian option
• 1 small pan of a gluten free option (where applicable)
• 1 small pan of a vegan option 

The dimensions of the pans are:

• giant lasagna pan - 13 1/2" X 9 5/8" X 2 3/4"
• small pan - 11 3/4" X 9 3/8" X 2 9/16"

The pans we intend to use are disposable but we are hopeful that for some meals we may be able to get them back and re-use them.